


Late Night Talks

by marshmallons



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Established Relationship, Explicit Sexual Content, M/M, Prideshipping, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-14 03:06:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14761412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marshmallons/pseuds/marshmallons
Summary: He had always thought Atem would be the first to break, the first to confess the deep extent of the feelings between them. He was wrong. Atem had won at this game too. But Atem says it so easily, so confidently, as if stating just another fact of life, that Kaiba thinks that maybe he's the real winner after all.





	Late Night Talks

**Author's Note:**

> alternate summary:  
> kaiba would rather die than admit to having feelings. atem milks them out of him.

“It’s hard to remember that we aren’t in a competition anymore.”

Kaiba is almost certain that Atem is asleep— he’s silent at his side, breathing slowly, deeply, evenly. His bronzed skin is warm beneath Kaiba’s cool hands and he allows his fingers to drift idly up and down the length of his arm, following the curves of sinuous muscle, now relaxed. His fingers come to a slow stop just above Atem’s elbow and when he doesn’t respond, Kaiba releases a sigh from deep within his chest. It feels as though he’s been bating his breath for months. 

His voice is quiet, nearly inaudible when he speaks again. He's thinking out loud, saying the first things to come to mind, and it's liberating to hear his own thoughts spoken out loud, breaking the silence. 

“I didn’t ever think we’d be here, like this. Every time you made me angry, I fantasized about you, about defeating you and taking you down, but now...now I think I just couldn’t get enough of you.” 

He considers his own words for a moment, confesses what he’s suspected for a long time now. His obsession with Atem —whom he had known then as _Yugi_ — had certainly been born out of animosity and rivalry. For a long time, he had despised the boy with ferocity and vitriol that he vividly remembers; it used to burn like molten lava through his veins. But at some point, and not even he could point out exactly when, it transformed into wistful yearning for the man now laying beside him. 

He had acted out, sure, but he had attracted attention the only way he knew how— with insults, jeers, and competitions that brought them together time and time again. The last time had been nearly a half-year prior and when that battle ended in his defeat once again, it had clicked— he no longer cared about the competition, the rivalry, victory —well, he still cared, but after the first time he had defeated Atem, their victories and losses were 50-50— he cared about _Atem_. 

The revelation had taken him by such surprise that he had felt physically ill, recoiled, and turned green in the face —“For Ra’s sake, Kaiba, after all this time, you still take your losses this terribly?” — and promptly rushed from the arena, ignoring the jabs and mockery from Yugi's insufferable friendship crew.

The memory is amusing now, never fails to bring a smile-grimace to Kaiba's face when he allows himself to reflect on it, but it had been _devastating_ not too long ago.

“I don’t fall in love. That’s not my thing and I can’t believe it had to be with you. Out of everyone, you just had to steal my heart. That’s very rude, you know, to steal?” 

Kaiba feels his own heart thrumming in his chest, tachycardic. At this point, his mouth is running almost as quickly as his pulse. He feels like he’s babbling now; he’s well-aware of it, but he can’t stop. The floodgates, which had been bolted shut for well over a decade, had rusted and broken wide open. 

Laughter bubbles in his chest but it escapes from his throat disguised as a hoarse, choked-out wheeze. "Do you have any idea how bizarre, how _frustrating_ it was to look across the dueling arena, to see you, and to know that there's no way that you're Yugi? And then to step off the arena and to see Yugi standing there, looking at me with those big, dumb eyes...I thought I was losing my damn mind. It didn't make sense, but here you are. I _like_ you."

It's the simple truth.

“It's your fault. You just never give up and you kept trying to make me your _friend_ , you and that dork crew of yours."

A blurry image of Atem's friends floats to the forefront of his mind, Wheeler especially prominent among them, and he represses the urge to physically shudder. "You're the only tolerable one out of them. And perhaps Yugi."

"Be nice. Yugi is very tolerable," Atem mumbles into his chest and Kaiba's heart sinks into his stomach. He doesn't dare to move, hardly dares to breathe, prays that Atem is asleep and merely talking in his sleep, until Atem caresses his stomach with his knuckles.

He's awake. Kaiba wants to fling him across the room. 

"Seto," he murmurs, voice deep and rumbly, gently scratching his fingernails on his chest. "Do you mean all that?" 

He exhales slowly, counts the seconds ticking between silence. _Six, seven, eight_. 

Atem is patient. Where Kaiba would snap, demand an answer impatiently, he waits, understands that Kaiba needs time, but trusts that his question won't remain unanswered.

"Yes. Yes, I do." 

He could feel the curve of Atem's face tucked into the hollow of his shoulder, feels his face twitching into a smile. Atem's breath catches into an endearing, quiet laugh and his lips press a discreet kiss onto the slender line of his clavicle. 

"Shut up," Kaiba says, but it lacks conviction, lacks the usual bite and viciousness. It's been a while since the last time he had genuinely meant it. 

Atem tilts his head up, searching out his lips, and he meets them willingly, sighs and sinks into plush lips with a feeling that he can only think to describe as _warm_.

Atem's lips are soft, welcoming; they're pliant beneath his own, but Atem controls him entirely. His hands cup Kaiba's face with such unbelievable tenderness that Kaiba's chest aches with it, and an inaudible sigh passes from between his parted lips. 

His hands are warm, and his pretty, painted fingernails tap gently against Kaiba's cheekbone, ticklish. They part ways but their lips linger, and he can feel Atem's wispy breaths puffing gently against his cheek, warming his lips. 

Beneath the covers, his hand creeps along the curve of Atem's waist. His fingers shyly pry under his the hem of his pajama shirt and the heat emanating from Atem's bare skin scalds his fingertips. 

Kaiba can't see Atem's face in the dark, but he knows by now that his beautiful, gem-colored eyes are half-lidded, dazed, and this late into the night, sleepy and affectionate. His features are sharp, his mannerisms elegant, but there's a softness to him that Kaiba can finally appreciate only after years of loathing him. 

Moonlight and a gentle breeze filter in through the partly-open window. Atem shivers at his side and Kaiba doesn't think twice before raising the comforter over Atem's shoulders. 

"You really do care," Atem whispers irreverently, and Kaiba can see his playful smile in the dark.

"I can't have you getting sick. You won't be able to duel me unless you're in top condition."

An old, very familiar lie, but it rolls off his tongue comfortably. He's certain that Atem doesn't believe him now, isn't even sure he ever believed him in the first place, but he sniffs and turns an incredulous gaze his way. 

Atem drums his fingertips against Kaiba's chest, walks two fingers right up to the sensitive dip between his collarbones. He caresses that spot with a single finger and Kaiba suppresses a shudder. He plays along, but his voice is knowing. "That's the only reason you care, right? You like taking care of your _number one competitor_ , right?" 

"Of course."

They haven’t dueled in months. 

Atem's leg rubs against Kaiba's and he hooks his slim ankle around Kaiba's calf. His hips draw near, his torso presses impossibly closer, and he entwines his arms around his torso, clings to him.

"That's all you care about?" he asks insistently, swaying his hips. His voice hides a trap. 

The light in the room is dim, but there's just enough for Kaiba to see the mischievous smile forming on his lips, and he doesn't trust it for one second. 

"What if it is?" he challenges, and Atem's eyes flash in the dark. In an instant, he pushes away and swings his nimble legs over Kaiba's hips, sitting on his lap and bearing his weight down when Kaiba tries to sit up. 

Kaiba thinks about rolling Atem off, pictures how funny it would be to dump him right over the edge of the bed — _he would be so pissed_ — but instead settles his hands over his slender hips, digs the pads of his fingertips greedily into the flash of bare, bronzed skin that peeks out above the waistband of his rumpled pajama pants. 

"I know you're lying," Atem says confidently, tilting his chin up and looking down at him imperiously. 

_So fucking hot._

Kaiba's mouth dries and he licks his lips, sees Atem's eyes follow the motion of his tongue. He anticipates his reaction — but still isn't ready when he dives in for a kiss, crashes his lips to his own with more intensity than before, and accidentally brings their noses together almost painfully. Kaiba raises one hand to that impossible hair, sweeps the blond bangs from his face and draws him in closer. 

His hands wander from Atem's hips, slide under his shirt and caress up his smooth back. He grins into the kiss when Atem shivers and recoils with an indignant noise of compliant. 

"Your hands are cold!"

"You don't complain about my cold hands when they're wrapped around your cock," Kaiba says smugly, lewdly, and Atem flushes dark red. His embarrassment is fleeting; it's quickly replaced by a lusty expression and he rolls his hips down onto Kaiba's lap.

"Then clearly your hands are on the wrong place."

Atem strips off his shirt, raises it over his head —Kaiba laughs when it snags over his hair and this _former king_ struggles to pull it off— and exposes his bare, lean chest to the cool air. His nipples instantly pebble in the cool air, goosebumps break out on his arms, and Kaiba reverently slides his hands up his hot torso to thumb at his nipples. Atem curves into his hands, beautifully taut like a drawn bow, and Kaiba appreciates the sight of the sinuous muscle rippling beneath his silky smooth skin. 

"Take off your pants," he breathes. He hears his own voice, hears the way it dropped an octave in lust, sees the way Atem lazily smiles and splays his fingertips across his bare chest. 

"Make me."

Kaiba surges up, knocking Atem off his lap and onto his back, and planks over him, bracing his weight on one hand. He shoves his free hand down Atem's pants, grins when he hears a sharp, broken gasp, and rolls his palm over Atem's half-hard cock.

"It's going to be really hard to take care of _this_ —" A light squeeze. Atem gasps silently. "—while these are still on."

Atem obediently bridges his hips and allows Kaiba to slip them off, leaving him in the nude because _underwear are superfluous, Seto._

Kaiba had laughed outright when Atem had told him that a few weeks ago, after revealing that he liked the feeling of silky pajamas on his naked skin but disliked wearing underwear beneath them— now he truly appreciates Atem's bizarre night-dressing habits and lowers his head to kiss his exposed sternum. He could feel Atem's hands, warm in contrast to his own, float up to his sides, caressing the length of his torso before pushing at the waistband of his boxers. 

"You're not naked," Atem says, voice muffled and distracted. "Change that. Quickly."

_Bossy. Who's the CEO around here?_

Biting back a sarcastic reply, Kaiba quickly kicks them off and lets out a loud cry before he can swallow it down — Atem's hands rose swiftly to his hips and brought them crashing down onto his own, grinding their erections together and bringing a wave of blissful friction. 

Kaiba pins his hips against Atem, causes Atem to whimper out a moan and throw his head back, hair splaying wildly across the crinkled bedsheets. He takes the initiative to seal his lips against his throat, kissing and biting faint pink marks into the skin as he feels along Atem's chest. Kaiba thrusts once and Atem shakes out a breath and his fingers claw against bare skin.

"Much better," Atem moans, rolling his hips up and entwining his arms around Kaiba's neck. Kaiba's mouth drops open in a silent gasp, his eyelids flutter, and he follows Atem's rhythm, frottting with smooth, measured undulations of his hips. 

Pleasure coils tightly in his stomach, surges through his entire body, building up until he's near trembling and breaks off with a gasp.

"I'm going to cum," he warns, inhaling sharply and looks at Atem from beneath his lashes, gaze heated and eyes heavily lidded. "But I don't want to. Not yet, not like this."

Atem understands immediately and sits up, equally flustered, panting just as hard and struggling to compose his breathing. 

"Come here," he commands, voice deep and gravelly, and Kaiba rushes at him, meets his lips desperately, feels Atem's skin burning hot against his own. Atem's fingers creep into his hair, grasping and lovingly holding him in place, and Kaiba moans when his fingernails scratch against the sensitive nape of his neck. 

"Tell me how much you want me," Atem demands, his voice a near-growl, as he moves from Kaiba's lips to his chin, trailing his lips along the curve of his jaw and littering kisses along the smooth column of his throat. "Say it out loud, like before."

"No," Kaiba says instinctively, pride flaring, and promptly cries out when Atem sinks his teeth into the tender junction between neck and shoulder. It's an unspoken rule that he cannot bite or mark above his collar-line, but Atem cuts it dangerously close, and Kaiba imagines the tabloids raving about _Seto Kaiba's secret lover_ and he deliriously craves it, wants to hear the scandal, see the shame of his own neck riddled pink and red, wants to see fingerprints on his skin. 

"Say it, Seto. Please."

Atem takes his cock in hand, squeezes around his shaft until pleasure borders on pain, and pumps his hand slowly, rhythmically. Kaiba is desperate not to cum, doesn't want this to end before he's ready. 

"I want you, I need you," he gasps, and when his hand doesn't stop, he blinks back the tears of pleasure he can feel brimming at his lashes. His breathing is stuttered, face flooding with heat. He knows what to say, doesn't want to say it, doesn't _say_ it but cries it out loud with desperation and longing. "I need you, as my partner, my friend, my lover! Atem, _please_."

Atem's hand stills and his gaze is _so_ soft when he looks Kaiba directly-on. He's silent, doesn't say a word as he pushes Kaiba onto his back, reversing their positions from just a few minutes before. Kaiba feels exposed, tricked and defeated into admitting that out loud, as if he hadn't revealed it —hinted at it— _enough_ over the last few months of their private relationship. His mortification and vulnerability melt into irritation and urgency. 

"Get on with it," he snaps, feeling the heat rise to his face as Atem just stares him down silently, still wearing that stupidly patient, adoring expression.

Kaiba growls in frustration, thinks he should have cum all over Atem's naked chest and gone to sleep. He raises his hands to the soft blond bangs framing his face and rakes his fingers through it impatiently, pulls on it until Atem winces. "Fuck me already or get off me."

"Seto—" Atem begins, but Kaiba cuts him off. 

"Fuck you," he says plainly, and hooks his ankles around Atem's hips. "And fuck me too. Now."

His impatience is mounting as Atem buries his face into the crook of his shoulder and lines his neck with kisses and dangerously sharp bites. His hands cup Kaiba's ass and he excitedly thinks _finally, for fuck's sake_ , as Atem traces his rim with a slender finger. 

Before Kaiba can open his mouth to rudely urge him get on with it, Atem pulls away entirely, slides out of bed to go to the bedside table. The noise of distress rips itself from his throat before he can help it and Atem laughs, deep and warm and molten, before he opens the top drawer and draws out lube.

"Relax, Seto," he says quietly and quickly climbs back to his place, laying aside the lubricant and caressing the tops of Kaiba's thighs. "Trust me."

Kaiba meets his gaze for a moment, long enough to see the deep affection in Atem's eyes, and he exhales slowly, breathing a little unsteadily, and nods. The way Atem looks at him is disarming, more than he could stand, and he raises an arm to shield his eyes, angling his face away.

"I do." 

Feelings. He had just admitted to having those. Atem knows, and Kaiba thinks that might explain why his fingers are so damnably gentle when they slip between his parted legs, finger him open with more care and thoroughness than either of them normally bother with. A little bit of pain has always been part of the game between them, but now, Atem's touch is nothing but reverent and generous; he touches Kaiba with devotion, works at him slowly, carefully, in a way so tender and gentle like he's never been touched before, not even by himself; building him up until he's shuddering with pleasure and his hand has fallen away from his face, dropped down to the bedsheets to twist and clutch them in a tight grip. 

Kaiba snakes one arm around Atem's neck, draws him in to kiss him hungrily, dips his tongue between teeth, coaxing soft noises from behind his nose. Atem's fingers draw away but he stays pulled close, kisses him back with a ferocity that leaves Kaiba exhilarated and breathless. 

"Atem, I'm ready. Fuck me."

Atem hooks his fingers underneath one of Kaiba's knees, easily pushing his leg back and over his shoulder to spread him that way while he guides himself in with his other hand. Kaiba's mouth drops open, his thighs tremble, and he struggles to keep his eyes open, fighting against the instinct to screw his eyes shut. 

" _Seto!_ " 

Atem breathes out his name like a prayer when he sinks inside. Kaiba can barely breathe, can't bring himself to say Atem's name, and a strangled cry pours from his throat. He can feel the dull ache, the familiar warmth and pain and pleasure that all stems from feeling Atem inside him, and he thinks it's one of those sensations he'll never become fully accustomed to — there's nothing like it. 

Atem's eyes are wide, pupils blown, lips kiss-swollen and gleaming with saliva. Kaiba wonders how he must look from Atem's perspective, pictures his hair ragged and spread out like a feathery halo across the pillow, face half-hidden and flushed and dewy. 

They aren't shy around each other anymore. Or rather, Kaiba has overcome a lot of his self consciousness around Atem. Atem made him feel desirable, handsome, took his face between his hands and looked at him for a millennia, whispered on his lips how beautiful he is. He said the words as he kissed down his chest, down his stomach and past his navel. He’d held Kaiba's length in his hand with careful consideration, savored every motion and sound that he made as he stroked him. Had him spill an orgasm in his hand so hard that Kaiba had to claw his way back to reality, just as dazed as he had been the very first time he had ever encountered _Atem_ in that fateful duel.

Atem repeats some of that now, caresses the length of his body with delicate hands and strokes his cock with even, confident movements that make Kaiba sigh and breathe out noises that he shamefully recognizes as belonging to himself. 

It doesn't take long for him to reach the brink. Like this, it never does.

He's noisy when he cums. He's past the point of words, can barely bring himself to form syllables, let alone moan out Atem's name, and he can only gasp out a broken, " _A-A-Ah_!"

He moans out short, heaving moans, gasps as he comes hot all over his own torso. Atem keeps moving his hand over his cock, milking his orgasm, and Kaiba's toes curl, his hands twitch into fists at his side. His muscles twitch as each wave of his orgasm washes over him, and he mindfully tries to relax the tension in his legs, certain that his heel must be pressing a bruise onto Atem's shoulder blade. 

He watches behind half-lidded eyes as Atem shudders above him, feeling the contractions of his body. His expression is contorted with pleasure, looks almost pained, and his voice is utterly raw and _fucked_ and gorgeous when he gasps out ' _Kaiba_ ' one last time and cums and—

" _Fuck_ , I love you," Atem breathes out, looking down at him, heavily flushed, and his parted mouth twitches into a blissed-out smile.

Kaiba's heart, already thumping erratically with arousal and adrenaline, stops completely, skips a beat, before resuming its pounding with a vengeance. His heart feels ready to leap out his throat and Kaiba chokes on it. 

“You…”

"Yes.”

“H-hold on…” Kaiba adjusts himself, shudders at the sensation of wet heat inside him. “You don’t… You can't mean that, can't just say it like that.”

Atem looks puzzled, mildly hurt. He draws back, exhausted, and Kaiba doesn't miss the look of satisfaction that crosses over his face when he looks down between his legs and sees the spent mess he made of him. Kaiba's face burns bright red, but he doesn't say a thing. The cum is drying uncomfortably on his skin, but his mind is blazing with something else far more pressing than housekeeping. 

"Atem?"

"I mean it. I love you," Atem says simply, without any of the embarrassment, pride, or mortification that Kaiba feels each time a remotely similar thought crosses his mind. "I've known it for a long time. And I know that you love me too."

"I never said _love_ ," Kaiba counters, playful but defensive, and he turns his body to the side to look at Atem, take in the sight of his glowy, flushed face, messed hair, kiss swollen lips. He hadn't said it before, maybe hasn't _known_ it until right this very moment, but he knows now that that's exactly what he's feeling. That feeling, the warmth and happiness in his chest, has a name. "I said I needed you. As in, I needed you to f-"

Atem cuts him off before he could finish that taunt. He kisses him sharply, all teeth and bites, until Kaiba moans a noise of defeat, grins against his relentless mouth. Atem's hand cups his face, pinches the jut of his chin between his forefingers. 

"Insufferable," Atem says emphatically, before an exasperated smile spreads across his lips and he kisses Kaiba's mouth, the tip of his nose, his chin. Over and over, until Kaiba wrinkles his nose and tries to escape the hold on his face."You really are. But I love you so much for it." 

Kaiba wheezes out a breathless, stunned laugh. That same feeling from before fills his chest. Somehow, that feeling even beats out the bliss from an orgasm. "Say it again."

Atem smiles, laughs, obliges him. "I love you, Seto."

Love. Yeah, that's definitely it.

**Author's Note:**

> this was originally going to be filthy and a little mean-spirited, but here i am, writing i love yous and lots of emotions. we'll call it a guilty indulgence. 
> 
> please please please leave a review if you enjoyed it! ❤️


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